Despite his deep resume and extensive, impressive body of work, revered & highly accomplished Chicago born, Oakland based graphic novelist Daniel Clowes, whose work is defined by its dark humored focus on the underdog, is finally getting the kind of exposure he has long deserved but for some reason eluded - until now.

That successful & prolific career spans two-plus decades in the alternative comic book arts world racking up such accolades as several prestigious Harvey Awards for his pioneering comic Eightball, his work appearing in the New Yorker, a 2011 PEN career achievement award for the darkly fun The Death-Ray (about an orphaned teen named Andy who discovers that, when he smokes cigarettes, he morphs into a superhero with special powers), plus the 2001 Oscar nomination for the film adaptation of his book Ghost World.

Six years ago his Art School Confidential was adapted to film and reportedly a film version of his book Wilson is currently in the works. But it is only now in 2012 that Daniel Clowes is finally getting his due with a large scale retrospective of his life's work at the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) that opens this weekend and runs there for four months.

With the exception of a (smaller scale compared to OMCA) solo show that Los Angeles' Richard Heller Gallery hosted for Clowes nine years ago, this OMCA retrospective will be Clowes first large scale, major museum exhibition focusing solely on his art and in great depth. Titled Modern Cartoonist, it opens this Saturday (April 14th) and runs through August 12th and will exhibit one hundred different pieces of the artist's work spanning the past 23 years.

"I thought there would be maybe a couple of hundred people here and that it would be a pretty good event but, damn, I didn't think there would be this many people here and that it would this great a party. Hell yeah!," exclaimed Dan K -- one of the many attendees at last Friday's East Bay Express party.

The Oakland biker/hip-hop artist (who a few years back had a feature on him in the East Bay Express) was excitedly shouting over the music coming from the main stage at the Oakland Museum of California, where the independent East Bay weekly was hosting its "Old School" themed "Best of the East Bay" free party. Meanwhile, behind him, one of the hella fun night's many performers, longtime Berkeley ska group The Uptones (pictured above), ripped into their appropriately old school hit "Out to Sea."   

"Crazy....in a good way," laughed Amoeba Music's Naomi about the scene. She and fellow Amoebite Rachael were kept extremely busy tending to the long line of music fans who patiently waited for their turn to spin-to-win prizes including CDs, DVDs, and lots of Amoeba swag, including bags, hoodies, and turntable slip mats. (Amoeba was one of the main sponsors of the event.) A little later, headlining act Flipper was scheduled to sign autographs at the Amoeba table.